J&J choos­es an ad­vo­cate of the “gold­en age” of vac­cines at the Gates Foun­da­tion to lead the pipeline in­to the fu­ture

A high-pro­file play­er is about to jump on­to the world stage of vac­cine de­vel­op­ment at a cru­cial time for the fast-chang­ing field.

We learned via so­cial me­dia posts that Pen­ny Heaton is tran­si­tion­ing from her role as CEO of the Bill & Melin­da Gates Med­ical Re­search In­sti­tute to glob­al ther­a­peu­tic area head of vac­cines at world play­er J&J. A spokesper­son for the gi­ant phar­ma out­fit tells End­points News that Heaton’s new job starts on Sep­tem­ber 7. And the change­up puts her in a hot seat as the phar­ma gi­ant eval­u­ates its po­si­tion in the vac­cine world as up­starts — one tied to Pfiz­er — take con­trol of the multi­bil­lion-dol­lar mar­ket for Covid-19 vac­cines.

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